


past echoes in the future

by mozaikmage



Series: past echoes in the future [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/F, Film Festival, Post-Canon, Reunions, art world things, group chats, level of research: SOME, relatable anxious lesbian content, sound design tsukki is good and I'll die on this hill, texting and messaging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 19:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14960306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mozaikmage/pseuds/mozaikmage
Summary: Nearly ten years after her last interaction with Kiyoko, Yachi is a moderately successful freelance graphic designer/motion media artist working in Tokyo, when she bumps into her old crush on a crowded street. And then, you know. Feelings and things.





	past echoes in the future

**Author's Note:**

> title is from avalanche by walk the moon which is one of my favorite songs idc if it doesn't fit this fic perfectly it's good okay  
> some of the places/events mentioned in this are real things that exist, some I made up for the story. uh. here

Summer in Tokyo feels like being very slowly boiled alive, Hitoka thinks, especially when she’s dressed professionally. Her hair’s already mostly escaped the bun she’d put it in that morning, her makeup is probably smudged, and she was going to show up to her very first meeting with this new client looking like an ice sculpture that had been allowed to melt a little before being refrozen. What’s worse, being on time but a mess, or taking a few minutes to fix her appearance before the meeting? She feels sticky and hot and disheveled as she speedwalks through Shibuya to the office building. So of course, this is when Hitoka sees her.

Making an appearance in Yachi Hitoka’s life for the first time in nearly ten years, Shimizu Kiyoko is crossing the street in the opposite direction. Her hair’s cut a lot shorter now, and she’s wearing a pantsuit, but her eyes are the same, still framed by glasses that only serve to magnify her ethereal beauty. And Hitoka, as has been previously established, looks like a mess. The universe is a cruel and unfair place. They’re still standing in the middle of the intersection, so at least the torture will be brief.

They make eye contact, and Hitoka sees Kiyoko light up in recognition.

“Hitoka-chan?”

“Sh-shimizu-senpai! Long time no see!” Hitoka blurts out.  _ Why did you say that! She hasn’t been your senpai in so many years!  _ “I-I mean—”

“It  _ is  _ you.” Kiyoko, thankfully, stops her from babbling. “You changed your hairstyle.”

“Haha, yeah,” Hitoka says, pulling at the end of her unraveled bun.  She still wears star clips in it, not the same ones she wore in high school, obviously, but the little decorative star motif somehow became part of her Brand without her noticing. Maybe the stars were why Shimizu even recognized her. “My mom says I look more like her every day!”

“It suits you,” Kiyoko says. “What’ve you been up to lately?”

“I’m a freelance motion graphics designer, and I do some other art things on the side,” Hitoka says, the answer rolling off her tongue without her even having to think about it. A small mercy. “I’m on my way to a meeting with a new client right now, actually! Um, what about you?”

“Lawyer.” The light changes, then, and they both look to opposite sides of the street. “Hitoka-chan, is your phone number still the same?”

“Yup!”

“So is mine. Text me,” Kiyoko tells her, before disappearing back into the crowd.

Yachi wonders, as she splashes cold water on her face in the bathroom before her meeting (to which she is twenty minutes early as usual), if the interaction had actually happened or if it was just a hallucination induced by crowded sidewalks and summer heat.

“I saw Shimizu-senpai today,” Hitoka tells Ennoshita and Akaashi over drinks that night. They’d ended up at the same art school after high school, though in different majors, and became friends and collaborators to the point where Hitoka now designs all the title sequences to the movies Ennoshita and Akaashi make, and the three of them hang out together at least once a week. They’re at an izakaya near Hitoka’s apartment, and Hitoka might be drinking a little more than usual because of the Shimizu Incident.

“Shimizu Kiyoko? Shimizu the former manager of our volleyball club? Shimizu who disappeared off the face of the earth after she graduated? That Shimizu?” Ennoshita’s already pulling out his phone. “I’m texting Ryuu and Noya, that’s amazing.”

Akaashi sips his beer silently, raised eyebrows indicating mild interest.

“Yes, that Shimizu,” Hitoka confirms. “Not everyone likes to use social media, Chikara-kun.” It would’ve been nice if Kiyoko had a Facebook or a Twitter or an Instagram or something Hitoka could use to see what Kiyoko’s doing with her life without actually asking her point-blank, but Hitoka can understand why she wouldn’t. The Kiyoko Hitoka remembers was a private person, only willing to open up in one-on-one conversations. A platform where strangers and acquaintances can read your every thought was not Kiyoko’s style at all.

“It’s not just that, though! She’s never even been to one of our team reunions. And I know Daichi-san invites her every year. I think he and Suga-san and Asahi-san are the only ex-volleyball people to still keep in touch with her.” Ennoshita’s phone vibrates. “Ryuu and Noya are stunned and demand photographic evidence.”

“I didn’t have time to take pictures, we were in the middle of a crosswalk! In Shibuya! It’s a miracle we had time to chat at all!”

Hitoka had…tried to keep in touch, sort of, but she ended up being too shy to ask Kiyoko for anything more than advice on being a manager, and by halfway through her second year, Hitoka had stopped texting, and Kiyoko never did text first.

“She’s a lawyer now, apparently, she’s probably too busy for high school team reunions,” Hitoka says. She looks down at the table. “Shimizu-senpai said I should text her. What do I even say?”

Ennoshita gives her a flat look, then picks up his phone and pretends to text. “’Hey Shimizu-san! Long time no see! Would you like to get a cup of coffee sometime and catch up?’ Done.”

“What if she doesn’t drink coffee? What if she’s so busy lawyering she doesn’t have time for a platonic friend-date with someone she hasn’t talked to in almost a decade? What if everything goes  _ completely horribly wrong?” _

“Yacchan,” Akaashi says, deadpan. “Breathe.”

Hitoka does, and then starts giggling a little hysterically. “The worst part about this whole thing is, the moment I saw her, I felt like I was 16 again. All blushing and nervous.” Hitoka puts her head down on the table. “She got a pixie cut and different glasses and she’s still the most beautiful person I’ve ever fucking seen.”

Ennoshita and Akaashi both pat her gently on the back.

“Do you think she likes women?” Akaashi asks Hitoka.

Hitoka chokes on her drink. “I didn’t think that far ahead. She looked like…maybe.” Hitoka’s gaydar wasn’t the most accurate, but she’s had some practice over the years, so. Hitoka puts her head down on the table again. “Dating Shimizu-senpai… That would be nice…” Her high school first-year self would probably combust at the very thought of it. “Then again, I’m sure she has people asking her out left and right. She’s so pretty, Keiji. You probably don’t remember because I think you met her like twice, but she’s…so pretty.”

Akaashi puts a hand over her glass. “I think maybe you’ve had enough for tonight.”

Hitoka wakes up the next morning with a mild headache and regret. She flicks open her phone and stares at Kiyoko’s name in her contact list, the contact picture unchanged since Spring High Nationals.

Nope. Hitoka flops back on her bed. Not today.

Though Hitoka specializes in motion media work, she does do graphic design sometimes, and her favorite repeat gig is advertising campaigns featuring the stars of the Japanese volleyball team. Whenever Hinata and Kageyama have to do a commercial or a billboard ad, they ask the agency to hire Hitoka, and the result is usually a great paycheck for Hitoka and a fun time for all three of them. Tournament season is always a bit surreal for her, seeing the promotional posters she worked on in the subway station and on the sides of buildings everywhere she goes. Hitoka walks into the studio in casual clothes, a bag of meat buns in one hand.

“Yacchaaaaaan!” Hitoka drops the meat buns as Hinata jumps on her back in a move that she still hasn’t quite learned to anticipate, even after all these years. Kageyama nods at her from where he’s standing in front of the green screen.

“Hi guys,” she says with a laugh. She picks the bag of buns up and puts them on the craft services table, and switches into Professional Mode, telling her friends where to stand and how to pose. Working with Hinata and Kageyama feels comfortable the way new clients never do, because after so much time she knows exactly what to say to them to get the results she wants, and they always take her direction well. The photographer, too, is someone she’s worked with a lot before. 

“Shouyou, do your friendly rival face,” she says. Hinata narrows his eyes a little and he smiles at the camera, looking determined and full of fire. The lighting makes his hair glow. It’s a great shot. The entire photoshoot goes so well, in fact, that Hitoka almost forgets about the problem of texting Kiyoko. Almost.

They go to a cafe around the corner after the shoot. Or, Hinata drags Kageyama by one arm and Hitoka by the other, telling them both that it’s been ages since they’ve all caught up and practice isn’t for another few hours and he heard this place has great cake and before they know it they’re all sitting at a table with cups of tea and the aforementioned great cake in front of all three of them.

“So! How have you been!” Hinata demands. 

Hitoka stirs her tea. “Pretty good,” she says. “Busy. And I ran into Shimizu-senpai yesterday.” She tells them what happened. “And then she told me to text her and I just don’t know what I could say.”

Hinata and Kageyama stare blankly at her. “Just ask her if she’d like to get lunch sometime, or something? Isn’t that what people usually do?” Kageyama says.

“Okay but like. The thing is. I had a  _ really big and embarrassing crush on her  _ and I don’t think I’m a hundred percent over it,” Hitoka blurts out in a rush. “I don’t think I’m capable of interacting with her like a normal human being because of that.”   
“Well that’s just silly,” Hinata tells her firmly. “I had a really big and embarrassing crush on Kageyama in high school, and then I told him, and now we’re together!”

Hitoka rolls her eyes. “Are we conveniently forgetting the months of fighting and misunderstandings leading up to you two actually getting together, or...”

“You and Kiyoko-san didn’t fight like we did, though,” Kageyama points out. “So I don’t think that’s likely to happen if you ask her out now.”   
“What’s the worst that can happen, really?” Hinata asks, stabbing his slice of matcha mille-crepe with his spoon. “She doesn’t reply at all? She says she’s busy or something?”

“What if,” Hitoka says, with slowly increasing horror, “she has a boyfriend who’s a professional MMA fighter or something, and he comes and beats me up for daring to talk to Shimizu-senpai?”

“Yacchan,” Hinata says seriously, “You do realize that there is no alternate universe in which that is an actual thing that can be true?”

“You don’t know that!”

“Seriously, just text her,” Kageyama insists. “Shouyou’s right, you’re being dumb.”

“Don’t say it like that, that’s rude!” Hinata fires back. “But yeah.”

The boys leave for practice, and Hitoka keeps staring at her phone.

\---

A few days after The Incident, Suga stops by Kiyoko’s firm to invite her out to lunch. Sugawara Koushi had, after a few months in pre-med at university, fell into the journalism field. He now covers the sports beat for a fairly well-known Tokyo newspaper, and is notorious for being the only reporter to ever get good interviews with Kageyama Tobio. His office is a few blocks away from Kiyoko’s, so he makes a point to spend time with her at least occasionally. 

“New ramen place opened up next to that one clothing store,” he informs Kiyoko as she gets her things. “We’re going.”

“I wish my girlfriend got me lunch as often as Sugawara-san,” Kiyoko’s deskmate whispers with a smirk.

“He’s not my boyfriend, and I’m paying this time,” Kiyoko replies flatly. Suga grins and winks at the deskmate as they walk out the door.

“Hey, remember when I had a crush on you back in third year?” Suga asks her on the way there. “That was pretty embarrassing.”

Kiyoko cringes. “Trust me, if I had any interest in men you’d be my first choice.”

Suga laughs. “At any rate, I’m glad we’re still friends even after all that nonsense. And it’s flattering that people keep thinking I’m your boyfriend.”

“Mm.”

Kiyoko lets Suga talk for most of the meal, about an annoying new coworker and Daichi and Yui’s new dog and whether or not Oikawa Tooru’s actually flirting with him when they run into each other at sports events or if it’s just wishful thinking.

She remembers back in high school when the guys were all vaguely flustered and afraid of her, and she was terrified of interacting with them in turn. Suga and Daichi and Asahi kept including her in things though, and she’d slowly learned to feel comfortable around them. Suga especially, because he’s stubborn about keeping in touch.

“How about you, though?” Suga’s saying now, in between bites. “Any new girls on the horizon?”

“Actually... I saw Hitoka-chan in Shibuya the other day.” 

Suga chokes on his noodles. “What?”

“I...told her to text me, but she still hasn’t, so I don’t know if I should text first or assume she’s not interested in anything...” Kiyoko mumbles. “I don’t even know if she dates women.”

“She does too,” Suga says. “You would know this if you actually used Facebook like a normal person.”

Kiyoko makes a face at him. “I’ve looked at her portfolio website before. She’s so creative and talented...”

“I know, she had a display at the last Design Festa. You should’ve gone, it was really cool!”

“...what’s a Design Festa?” Kiyoko feels a bit uncultured and out of the loop as Suga shakes his head at her and pulls his phone out, flicking through his photo gallery.

“Here.” The photo he shows her is a shot of Hitoka standing in front of a table with piles of pins, stickers and prints surrounding a TV screen. Everything on and around the table is patterned with stars in shades of blue and yellow, including Hitoka’s outfit. She’s beaming at the camera, making a V-sign with one hand and holding a flyer in the other. 

“She looks so professional,” Kiyoko murmurs. Hitoka looks confident and capable in a way Kiyoko doesn’t remember seeing in high school, and it’s...attractive. And new. And according to Suga, the possibility of Hitoka being interested exists.

Suga grins at her, then pulls his phone back and starts typing something into it. “Okay, if we assume you’re both just as shy about starting personal conversations as you were a decade ago, you need to run into her casually again, just not on a busy crosswalk. Lucky for you, I actually keep tabs on our former clubmates! Yacchan, Ennoshita, Akaashi and Tsukishima all worked on a short film together, and it’s going to be screened at this festival in two weeks! I’m trying to get as many of our old volleyball friends to show up and surprise them there.” 

Kiyoko shrinks a little in her seat. “I probably have work.”

“You can’t always have work, Kiyoko.” Suga leans forward. “Do you not want to see everyone again?”

“I mean...” Kiyoko pushes her glasses up on her nose. “I’ve been skipping out on meetups like this for so long already, wouldn’t it be weird for me to suddenly show up? It’ll attract attention away from their film...”

Suga gives her his most unimpressed look. “If you want to reconnect with Yacchan, you’re  gonna have to do  _ some _ thing.”

Kiyoko sighs. “I guess you have a point.” 

\---

It’s been almost two weeks and Hitoka still hasn’t texted Kiyoko. She’s typed stuff in and then backspaced out of it a dozen times, hesitating to the point where sending something at all would probably be a little weird. She’s so preoccupied with the texting thing, in fact, that when the “Film fest tomorrow!” reminder pops up in her calendar app Hitoka realizes she completely forgot to prepare for it. Mentally, that is. She’s not required to do anything for the screening besides dress well and say “thank you for watching” at the end, but standing up on a stage with a bunch of strangers staring at her will never be comfortable. At least she won’t be up there alone this time.

Hitoka stares at the “compose new message” window again, and types out yet another message.

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): Shimizu-san! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a movie I worked on is playing at the Rainbow Reel Festival this Saturday. It’s called Dot. Ennoshita-san directed it, Akaashi-san produced it, and Tsukishima-kun helped with the sound design. You can get a ticket here [link] if you’re interested in seeing it on the big screen. There’ll be a q+a thing and a party afterwards, the whole thing should end by around 10 pm. _

“Do it, you useless lesbian,” she whispers to herself, and hits send. Her heart is pounding and she wonders if she was really going to have an anxiety attack over a single text message. She opens up the group chat with the film crew and asks them what they’re wearing to the screening to distract herself.

Her phone vibrates almost immediately. Oh god, her message was too passive, too impersonal, too long-winded, she didn’t even ASK Kiyoko if she wanted to come or tell her she’d like for Kiyoko to be there because that seemed too forward, everything was a mistake—

_ Shimizu Kiyoko (*ﾉωﾉ): Hi Hitoka-chan, that sounds nice! I’ll try to make it. _

Or that. 

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): Great!  _

And then, to the group chat:  _ SHIMIZU-SENPAI MIGHT BE COMING WHAT DO I WEAR NOW _

_ Akaashi: Did you finally text her? _

_ Yachi: YES _

_ Ennoshita: Congratulations! _

_ Ennoshita: We should wear dot-patterned things because the film is called Dot _

_ Tsukishima: With all due respect, that is incredibly cheesy, Ennoshita-san. _

_ Ennoshita: Exactly :D _

Hitoka has a dot-patterned dress that’s an acceptable level of formal for an indie film screening. She wonders if she should maybe wear something rainbow with it too, since it is an LGBT film festival, and the film is about two boy’s volleyball players falling in love.

_ Yachi: Rainbow-striped cardigan over black and white dot dress y/n _

_ Akaashi: yes _

_ Ennoshita: yes _

_ Yachi: Tsukishima-kun, your thoughts??? _

_ Tsukishima: no opinion _

_ Yachi: cardigan it is!  _

She spends a few minutes digging through her jewelry box for appropriate accessories, and ends up choosing a thin necklace with an acrylic rainbow pendant on it to go with her standard star hair clips. As she looks in the mirror again, another thought occurs to her, and she types into the group chat again with increased agitation.

_ Yachi: what if shimizu-senpai shows up with a date. what if she shows up and then leaves early because she hates our film so much she couldn’t stand to watch the entire twenty minutes of it. wat if sHE HAS A BIG STRONG PROFESIONL WRESTLER BOYFRIEND WHO WULD BEAT ME UP FOR EVEN LOOKING IN HER DIRECTN _

_ Tsukishima: I thought we went over that already, Yachi. Several times. In several different group chats.  _

_ Tsukishima: It’s Extremely Unlikely to be the case _

_ Yachi: YOU DON’T KNOW THAT FOR SURE _

_ Yachi: maybe she’s busy and just won’t come at all. That might actually be the worst outcome _

_ Yachi: or maybe she shows up and then has to leave immediately because of some kind of family emergency _

_ Akaashi: You’re spiraling a little, Yacchan _

_ Ennoshita: deep breaths!! _

Hitoka takes a few deep breaths. Akaashi’s right, she is spiraling, and needs to chill out. She should think about the question and answer portion of the event a little, at least. Ennoshita promised her that most of the questions are going to be for him and Akaashi, but there was always the possibility that something was going to get thrown at her since she’s the outlier in the group. The girl, the manager, the lesbian. The motion media specialist doesn’t usually get invited to the film screenings, but because this was a small production, she’d ended up being a lot more involved with the filmmaking process than usual. It was a fun change of pace, and the movie turned out really great. But now she has to  _ go on stage and talk to people.  _

Hitoka sighs and checks her social media accounts to make sure she’d promoted the screening on everything. A full auditorium was somehow less nervewracking than an auditorium with exactly three people in it. 

Her phone vibrates again.

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): Yachaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan good luck tmrw!!! Sry tobio n i can’t make it D: _

The dynamic duo’s volleyball team is playing in Osaka on Saturday, so there was no way they’d be able to come to an event in Tokyo. Selfishly, Hitoka wishes they could be there.

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): thank u shouyou!!! good luck w/your game!! I’ll send u a link to the film when it’s uploaded online if you wanna watch it on your own time _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): YEAAAAAAA _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): ttyl!!! _

Hitoka spends the rest of the day in a familiar state of low-grade panic, whispering to herself that there is really nothing to worry about, she’ll be surrounded by friends and people she trusts, and they made a product to be proud of. She buys a box of donuts from the bakery across the street, picks up a bottle of wine and some reality show, and settles in for the night. 

Something Hitoka had learned over the years was that while she did like spending time with people, being alone was so much easier. She’s had a few short-lived relationships over the years, but none of them ever lasted long enough for her to completely let her guard down. The people she’d met through volleyball all stuck around in her life longer than any girlfriend.

She wonders if dating Kiyoko would be different. If she’s allowed to even think about dating Kiyoko at all.

“You like these people, you like this movie you’ve made together, you’re comfortable in this setting, stop freaking about a freak possibility,” Hitoka tells herself again.

\---

Kiyoko steps out of the elevator and freezes. She knows she’s in the right place, there’s helpful signage telling her that yes, this is where the short film Dot will be screened in exactly thirty minutes. There are people milling about in front of the closed doors, some of which she recognizes. Anxiety shoots through her, more painful and panicky than she expected, and she almost turns around and leaves.

Someone catches her by the elbow. “Well, this is a somewhat-expected surprise!” Suga chirps, whirling Kiyoko around. Oikawa stands next to him, wearing a hat and sunglasses in a poor approximation of a disguise.

“Manager-chan,” he says gruffly.

“Oikawa-san,” Kiyoko says. “I hear volleyball’s going well?” She glances back and forth between him and Suga. They were standing close together, mirroring each other’s movements in a way that spoke of, if not a romantic relationship, a long friendship at least.

“Yup! Crushed Tobio-chan’s team a few weeks ago, it was awesome. If anyone asks, I was never here.” 

Suga rolls his eyes. “You’re so paranoid.”

“Shush.”

The doors open then, and Suga steers Kiyoko to sit down close to but not all the way in the front. “The film crew will be sitting in the reserved seats up there,” he explains, pointing. “So you won’t have to actually make eye contact with her until later, don’t worry.”

“How did you know I was worrying about that?”

Suga smiles at her. “You’ve gotten easier to read over the years.” 

Oikawa slouches against Suga and pulls out his phone to text someone.

“Are Nishinoya and Tanaka coming?” Kiyoko whispers. 

Suga nods. “They’re both still pretty close with Ennoshita-kun, so they try to go to these screenings when they can. It’ll be fine, they’ve mellowed out a lot since high school.”

“Kiyoko! Long time no see!” Daichi sits down next to her, Yui in tow. 

“Hello,” she says. “Congratulations on the...new...dog? Suga told me you got a new dog?”

“Yes! Her name is Snowy and she’s the cutest ball of fluff the world has ever known!” Yui pulls out her phone and shows Kiyoko pictures. The spikes of anxiety subside a bit.

Soon enough, the lights dim and the film rolls. It opens with a shot of a volleyball hitting the gym floor, and Kiyoko hears the volleyball players in the audience gasp. 

The film is a live-action volleyball love story between two boys on different teams, clearly inspired by real events. Hitoka-chan did the motion graphics, Kiyoko knows, so she pays special attention to anything that looks like it might be called motion graphics. The title sequence is fun and vibrant, neon circles bouncing around the screen before fading into the word Dot. The graphic circles come back at key emotional moments in the story, enhancing the character’s feelings like in a manga or something. Kiyoko’s not much of an art person, really, but she thinks it looks very nice. She finds herself wondering just how much of it is based on Ennoshita and Akaashi’s high school experiences. It’s an unusually cheerful movie, and watching it feels like an escape from daily life.

The lights come back on, and the filmmakers and a festival moderator make their way to the row of chairs set up in front of the screen. They introduce themselves, and the question and answer portion of the evening starts.

“Yeah, Keiji and I met at volleyball training camp in our second year of high school, but we didn’t actually get together until halfway through film school,” Ennoshita says with a laugh. “We liked each other, but...there was a lot of other stuff to work through before that could happen.”

“Dot’s  _ inspired _ by a true story, yes, but it’s not anyone’s exact biography,” Akaashi explains. “We were talking about what kind of movies we would have liked to see when we were confused and scared teenagers, and for all of us our teenage years are kind of synonymous with volleyball.”

The way the room is lit means that from where Hitoka is sitting, she can’t make out the faces of the audience. Still, Kiyoko imagines that Hitoka can see her. Hitoka’s hair is pulled up in a messy bun, with a few wisps framing her face, and decorated with the navy star clips Kiyoko remembers so well.

“I wanted to work with Yachi-san and Tsukishima-san on this project partly because of that element of nostalgia for the good old high school volleyball days,” Ennoshita says. “They’re both very talented creators, and their input throughout the process has been extremely valuable. We had a sense of camaraderie from knowing each other for so long that made it easy to work together.”

Hitoka hides her face in her hands at this, and the audience chuckles. Tsukishima looks mildly disgruntled. 

“Yachi-san, how has this project been different from films you’ve worked on before?”

Hitoka immediately adopts a “deer-in-the-headlights” look at the question. “Well,” she says with a nervous laugh, “I’ve worked with Ennoshita-san and Akaashi-san on many projects, but my work has usually been limited to the film title sequences and end credits. For this one, they asked me to come up with a more experimental mixed-media thing for the volleyball sequences, and figuring out how to make that work was really fun.”

“Yachi-san also helped with the script!” Ennoshita interjected. “Since she was our manager in high school, we asked her for her input on the manager character. Making sure the characters felt like real people was very important for us.” 

“Oh yeah!” Hitoka is blushing. “It was my first time in a writer’s room! Very exciting.”

The audience laughs, and Kiyoko feels something like fondness for Hitoka.

“Dot has been criticized for being unrealistically optimistic, especially considering the current social attitudes,” the moderator says. “What do you think about that?”   
“We need optimism,” Tsukishima says, taking the mic from Akaashi. “LGBT youth in japan need to know that they can find love, and they can be happy. We all—” he looks around, and the other three nod in agreement “—we all want this film to make people happy. We want to give people hope.” Kiyoko wonders what high school first-year Tsukishima would think of this adult Tsukishima, talking so earnestly and passionately about happiness.

The room bursts into applause.

The moderator opens the panel up to questions from the audience. Suga jumps up immediately.

“Suga-san!” Hitoka and Ennoshita exclaim, Hitoka in shock and Ennoshita in slight dismay.

“Congratulations, all of you, first of all,” Suga says, causing Hitoka’s blush to darken even further. “Second of all, I assume you still follow the sport, right?” The four of them nod. “What are your thoughts on homophobia in professional volleyball?”

Kiyoko shoots a glance at Oikawa, who’s slinking down in his seat a bit.

“We don’t have that much time, Sugawara-san,” Akaashi says, to strained laughter.

“It’s bad? It exists and it’s bad?” Hitoka offers, to more laughter. She passes the mic to Tsukishima, who speaks carefully. “I know some players whose sexuality is an open secret amongst the industry, but sometimes it seems like no matter how famous or talented you are, getting outed could ruin everything.”

“It’s getting better, I think, but...very slowly...” Ennoshita finishes, and everyone looks a bit uncomfortable with the line of questioning.

“Sorry, guys, I didn’t mean to bring the mood down so much,” Suga tells them. They laugh a bit. 

The last audience question comes from a punk-rock looking girl with cherry-red hair and piercings. “What got you all interested in volleyball in the first place?”

Hitoka’s holding the mic, so she starts. “A pretty girl asked me to be a manager for the boy’s volleyball club, and I got so distracted by how pretty she was I said yes without even listening. In retrospect, I think that was the moment I realized I liked girls.” 

Everyone laughs. Hitoka doesn’t seem embarrassed by this at all, delivering the line like it’s just a funny little story. One Hitoka’s probably told a dozen times over. 

Kiyoko hasn’t heard it before.

Tsukishima puts a hand over his eyes and mutters, “Oh my god.” 

Kiyoko’s sure the boys have their own answers to the question, but none of them register, because Hitoka’s words keep ringing in her ears.

Back then, Kiyoko’s instinctive reaction to seeing Hitoka was a desire to protect Hitoka from anything that might harm her. She wanted to wrap the younger girl in a pile of blankets and save her from everything that made her so anxious all the time. And then sometime around Nationals, when Hitoka finally started getting more comfortable with volleyball and the team and the role of manager...sometime around then, Kiyoko found herself looking at Hitoka and thinking, “Cute.” But then, graduation was just a few months away, and long-distance was a lot of pressure, and it didn’t seem worth the trouble for what Kiyoko was sure had to be a fleeting crush.

Would it be worth it now? If Hitoka still feels the same?

The Q and A panel ends and everyone retreats to the back of the hall for tiny desserts and drinks. Kiyoko tries her best to hide behind Suga and Oikawa without looking like that’s what she’s doing. She watches Tsukishima pile every single mini strawberry shortcake into a small mountain on his paper plate while batting Kuroo’s hand away from them.

“You don’t even  _ like _ stawberry shortcake, Tetsu,” he grumbles.

“I do too! Not as much as you do, maybe, but—hey, look over there!”

“I’m not falling for that,” Tsukishima says, one arm curled protectively over the pile of cakes.

“No seriously, isn’t that your old manager? The one that’s not Yacchan. What was her name, Kyouko? Kiyoko?”

Tsukishima looks up. Kiyoko doesn’t run away, but she does turn around to avoid making eye contact with him.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, she ends up bumping straight into Yachi Hitoka.

“Oh my gosh I am so sorry,” Hitoka’s already rambling as she steps backwards with a bow. Then she registers who she’d bumped into and stutters out a, “Sh-sh-sh-sh-Shimizu-senpai!”

“Hi,” Kiyoko says breathlessly.

“Hi,” Hitoka says. The “deer-in-the-headlights” look from earlier is back. She’s standing next to the red-haired punk girl from earlier on the other side of the dessert table, evidently deep in conversation.

“The film was great. I loved it. And the animation things you did were beautiful,” Kiyoko tells her. Hitoka flushes scarlet.

“I was just talking to Eri-tan here,” Hitoka says, gesturing towards the punk girl. “She owns a bar/gallery space in Roppongi, and we were talking about maybe setting up a multimedia installation exhibit in her gallery after the current show ends. That would be pretty cool, right?” 

“It sounds interesting,” Kiyoko says. “I’m not super familiar with art things, though, I’m just a lawyer...”

“I know we haven’t seen each other in a while, Shimizu-senpai,” Hitoka interrupts, bowing out of nervous habit, “But please don’t downplay your accomplishments like that!  Forgive me for being presumptuous.” Hitoka bows again.

“No, Hitoka-chan, you’re fine,” Kiyoko says, looking around for some kind of distraction.

The distraction finds her. 

“Kiyoko-san?!” exclaim two painfully familiar voices.

“Tanaka. Nishinoya,” she greets them flatly.

“It’s been so long! You look as lovely as always,” Tanaka says, beaming. 

“Really!” Noya adds. He’s dyed the streak in the middle of his hair bright blue instead of blonde for some reason, and added piercings. It looks interesting. Not like the kind of person Kiyoko spends most of her time with these days.

To her surprise, Kiyoko manages to have a fairly adult conversation with them about what they’ve been up to. Tanaka works at his dad’s restaurant, Nishinoya’s an assistant volleyball at Karasuno now, helping out Ukai. When she turns around again, she spies Hitoka chatting amicably with Akaashi and yet another stranger Kiyoko’s never seen, looking as comfortable as Kiyoko’s ever seen her. From what she can overhear, it seems the man was one of Akaashi and Ennoshita’s professors at the art school the three of them attended.

_ She’s really come into her own,  _ Kiyoko thinks, remembering the barbeque at training camp and how terrified Hitoka had been of all the big volleyball players.

“Oh, Shimizu-san. You’re actually here,” Tsukishima says then, strawberry shortcake pile noticeably diminished. Kuroo has an arm thrown over Tsukishima’s shoulder, and Tsukishima isn’t even pretending to be annoyed by it anymore. “Did you enjoy the film?”

“Hi, Tsukishima-kun. Yes, it was lovely.” 

Kuroo grins at his boyfriend, and Tsukishima suppresses a smile at the praise. “Well, we all worked hard on it, so. Have you talked to Yachi-san yet?”

Kiyoko feels her face grow hot, but she’s good at keeping her face impassive when she needs to. “A little, why?”

Tsukishima just tilts his head a little and gives her a long considering look. “I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”

Kuroo rolls his eyes and mutters something like “so dramatic,” and Tsukishima shushes him.

Kiyoko eventually does give her congratulations to Ennoshita and Akaashi, and has some conversations with the other ex-volleyball people she used to know. No one seems particularly surprised at her presence, even though it’s the first time in almost a decade she’s actually shown up at an event. And people keep asking her if she’d talked to Hitoka yet. It creates an impression of not being in on a big conspiracy. 

She checks her watch and realizes it’s almost ten at night. Kiyoko wonders if it would be rude to shove some cookies into her purse for later. Nah, she’ll probably forget she put cookies in her purse and they’ll get stale and crumble into dust. 

“Shimizu-senpai! Are you leaving? I’ll walk with you!” Hitoka appears next to her, rainbow cardigan swirling around as she turns.

“Don’t you have to stay longer?”

Hitoka blushes. “Oh. I. I...have an early thing tomorrow. Yeah, I um, have to video-call a client in the States early in the morning, because it’ll be Saturday evening over there by then. Time zones! What can you do!” She speedwalks to the elevator. “Anyway, the guys understood, so. Where do you live now?”

“Ah, Kichioji...it’s about half an hour on the subway from here.”

Hitoka nods fervently. “Keio line, right? Me too! I’m a bit further out from the center than you are, I think?”

Kiyoko asks her about Ennoshita and Akaashi, and how they ended up working together.

“When I was a freshman, I’d see the two of them around campus a lot, and we’d talk about our mutual friends and stuff. And then Chikara-kun needed a poster for something, I think auditions?” Hitoka rambles as they cross the street to the subway station. “And he asked me to make it for him, so I did, and he liked it so much when he made his second year film he asked me to do a title sequence for him because I was taking a motion design class. By their senior year, Keiji-kun had decided on the producer track and Chikara-kun decided to direct, so Keiji-kun was the producer for Chikara-kun’s final film, and he asked me to do the title sequences for it again. I owe a lot of my motion design portfolio to those two. By the time I graduated, I had a few offers from graphic design companies who wanted me to work in-house for them, which was really nice!”

“So, why freelance?”

Hitoka pushes open the door for Kiyoko. “I didn’t like the idea of working in an office every day. I wanted more flexibility in my life, you know?” The realization that Kiyoko works in an office every day seems to hit her. “Not that there’s anything wrong with an office job! If that’s what you wanted, I mean...!”   
“It’s fine, Hitoka-chan, I get what you mean.” Kiyoko smiles at her.

They make it through the subway turnstiles before Hitoka blurts out, “I lied, by the way, about the client thing. I’ve had to do that before, but I don’t have anything tomorow. I just really wanted to spend some more time with you.” She bows a little bit. “I’m sorry for lying to you!”

Kiyoko blinks. “You wanted to spend more time with me? Why?”

Hitoka gives her an incredulous look. “Why wouldn’t I? I haven’t seen you in so many years, and you were...you were really important to me! A-as a role model, and stuff!” Hitoka freezes. Her expression slowly turns to horrified. “Oh my god, you were at the Q and A. You heard me tell an entire room of people that you made me realize I was gay. Oh my god. I. I’m so sorry if I made you uncomfortable with that, oh my god.”

“Hitoka-chan, you don’t need to apologize for that.” The train pulls up, unusually empty for a Saturday night, and they sit down next to the door. “It was...” Earth-shatteringly unexpected? “...flattering,” Kiyoko ends up saying.

There’s a pause. And Kiyoko makes a decision.

“Hitoka-chan, do you...want to get coffee with me sometime? Like as a date?”

Hitoka gapes at her. “Are you...do you really... _ you date girls? _ ”   
“Yes,” Kiyoko says, in a voice considerably calmer than she expected herself to sound.

“You want...to...really?” The last word comes out at a high-pitched screech, and Hitoka claps her hand around her mouth as the rest of the train’s passengers look at her reproachfully. “I mean, are you serious?” she whispers. “Because like, I know it’s been a long time, but I still really like you, and if you’re just...humoring me or whatever, because of what I said...”

“Just one date,” Kiyoko says, pulling out her Professional Lawyer voice out of somewhere and successively creating an impression of a persuasive, collected woman. “Coffee. Or tea, if that’s what you like. We can see how it goes from there, okay?”

Hitoka stares at her for a few seconds, then pulls out her phone and flips through her calendar app. “Does Wednesday afternoon work for you?”

\---

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ [cut for length] _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): YACCHAN YOU DID IT I’M SO PROUD OF U _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・):  COFFEE DATE COFFEE DATE COFFEE DATE!!!! _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*):  COFFEEE DATE COFFEE DATE COFFEE DATE!!!!!! _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*):  how did your game go??? _

_Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): we WON_ _(((o(*°▽°*)o))) both sets!!!_

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): aaah! Congrats!!! (((o(*°▽°*)o))) _

_ \--- _

_ Yachi: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ Ennoshita: good “AAAAAAAA” or bad “AAAAAAAAAA” _

_ Yachi: good but also why am I allowed to say words ever _

_ Akaashi: what happened? _

_ Yachi: she asked me out on a coffee date! Like a date-date! _

_ Tsukishima: congratulations. Now we are all free from having to listen to your problems _

_ Yachi: tsukishima-kun  _ _ (｡╯︵╰｡) _

_ Akaashi: r00d _

_ Ennoshita: Also, awfully bold of you to assume that yacchan won’t want all of our help to prepare for this date _

_ Yachi: actually yeah pls save me from myself _

_ Tsukishima: You’ll be FINE you’re an ADULT _

_ Yachi: Haha! _

_ \--- _

Hitoka has been on dates before. More than once, even. She’s had a few relationships. But none of those dates and none of those relationships had been with  _ Shimizu Kiyoko.  _ Who had, in the past decade, somehow become even more cool and professional and competent at being an adult. While Hitoka had forgotten to do her laundry for two weeks and was almost out of socks without any holes in them.

_ I bet Shimizu-senpai remembers to do her laundry every week _ , Hitoka thinks as she lugs her basket to the coin laundry around the corner from her apartment building.  _ And throws out her old holey socks instead of keeping them in the back of her drawer.  _

Her phone vibrates as she finishes loading the washing machine.

_ Shimizu Kiyoko (*ﾉωﾉ): So, 4pm tomorrow at Selina’s? _

Hitoka’s heart does that horrible roller coaster impersonation thing it does whenever she interacts with Kiyoko, which seems to have only gotten worse with time.

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): Yup! _

_ Shimizu Kiyoko (*ﾉωﾉ): Can’t wait! _

Kiyoko isn’t a very expressive texter, Hitoka has already noticed, so the exclamation point at the end seems to mean more coming from her. Hitoka knows what she’s going to wear, which topics of conversation to talk about, and has been given no less than five separate pep talks from her friends. It should be fine. It will probably be fine.

Of course, it could go terribly and end in Hitoka somehow setting the cafe on fire by the sheer power of her anxiety and awkwardness, but that probably won’t happen.

Probably.

Hitoka leans against the washing machine and stares at her phone, deep in thought. “A mediocre date experience,” she says to herself quietly, “would be the worst, because then we would both be uncertain as to whether or not we should pursue this further. At least with an awful date you know to cut ties at the end of it, right?”

The washer beeps, startling Hitoka into jumping straight into the air. “It’s going to be fine,” Hitoka whispers to herself again.

\---

“Scale of one to ten, with ten being Hinata the second after he served into Kageyama’s head, how worried are you about tomorrow’s date?” Suga asks Kiyoko over lunch at a MOS Burger near Kiyoko’s office. 

Kiyoko takes a bite, chews, swallows. “Around a 6.5, probably? Maybe closer to 7.” She considers it. “If ten on this scale is Hinata serving into Kageyama’s head, I don’t think I’ve ever been more anxious than a nine at most.”

Suga nods seriously. “So, pretty worried, then. Do you know what you’re going to wear?”

“Yup.”

“And what you’re going to talk about?” 

“We’ve never really had a problem with that before, so, yup.” That was one of the things Kiyoko had liked about her so much back then, how they could talk about anything from cross-spikes to body lotion and not get bored. It was maybe a little tense now, but the conversation had flowed pretty easily on the train back from the screening, so hopefully it’ll be the same on the date.

“Then what’s worrying you?”

Kiyoko takes the paper wrapper left over from her burger and starts folding it into a tiny triangle. “I haven’t been in a serious relationship in years. If the date does go well, and we want to...keep dating, I’m worried I’ll mess it up somehow. I’m worried I’ll be too closed off or too unavailable with my time or too bad at getting along with her friends...”

“Well, you know most of Yacchan’s friends already, so that’s one down,” Suga says. “But also, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Focus on having a good time getting coffee and cake with a cute girl you like!”

Kiyoko puts her hands down on the table and leans forward a little in a posture she knows is intimidating. “That reminds me, Sugawara. How’s Oikawa-san doing these days?”

Suga fake-gasps. “Low blow, Kiyoko-chan, low blow.” He sips his tea. “Oikawa’s fine. We still haven’t like, actually talked about anything, but he made me watch a whole season of the X-Files while cuddling on the couch with him on Sunday, so. I have no idea where we stand.” Suga looks away from the table and props his head up in his hands, then sighs. “There’s so many reasons why we shouldn’t date or even hook up, but I want to anyway, and I’m pretty sure he does too...Oikawa just has a lot more to lose than I do if it goes public.”

Kiyoko makes a sympathetic noise. “That’s tough.”

Suga points at her. “You should be grateful that the only obstacle to  _ your  _ happy gay relationship is your own and Yacchan’s ridiculous anxiety over nothing!”

“Thank you, Suga,” Kiyoko tells him sincerely. 

Suga winks. “Any time, Kiyoko. You should come out with me and Daichi and Asahi next weekend! It’ll be fun!”

“I’ll think about it,” Kiyoko says.

\---

Hitoka gets to the cafe 15 minutes early, as she tends to. She’s surprised to see Kiyoko already there, leaning against the wall outside and sipping something from a pink water bottle as she checks her phone.  It’s brutally hot out, but Kiyoko appears perfectly unruffled in a simple sundress and flat sandals. She looks up as Hitoka approaches, and smiles.

“Hi, Hitoka-chan,” Kiyoko says. “You’re early.”

“You were earlier,” Hitoka points out, and this somehow flusters the older girl. Kiyoko shoves her stuff into her tiny backpack and lets out a little nervous laugh Hitoka doesn’t remember hearing before.

“I overestimated how much time it would take me to get here,” Kiyoko explains, pushing open the door and sighing a little as that sweet, sweet air conditioning washes over them. “I was half-expecting my boss to call me in with some kind of urgent job absolutely nobody else could do.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

Kiyoko frowns. “More often than I would like.”

They sit down and order iced green tea with a scoop of ice cream in it, a summer specialty of this particular cafe.

“Sometimes I think my boss gives me the most work because I’m the only woman working at our firm besides the receptionist, but sometimes I think I’m imagining it,” Kiyoko confesses. “I can handle it, though.”

“I know you can,” Hitoka says, and beams at Kiyoko. 

Kiyoko looks to the side and pushes her glasses further up on her nose. She doesn’t blush, or if she does, Hitoka can’t see it. Unlike Hitoka herself, whose face is frequently compared to an open book. “Well,” she says, after a moment. “How about you? How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good!” Hitoka talks about designing ad campaigns featuring Kageyama and Hinata, and the opening credits she’s working on for a new independent film festival in Sendai.

“I’m still not sure what I’m going to do for Eri-tan’s gallery,” she ends up saying. “I’m used to making graphics and things to promote companies or sell stuff, but Eri-tan wants something that’s pretty and also meaningful. I’ve never been that great at coming up with deep concepts. I’ve had some pieces up in her gallery before, that’s how we became friends, but never a whole solo installation exhibit just by myself. So there’s...some pressure.” She sips her tea and then stops. “Am I talking too much? I’m sorry, I do that when I’m nervous, you’ve probably noticed, haha, god.”

“I prefer listening to talking, really,” Kiyoko assures her. “And I like listening to you.”

Hitoka chokes on her tea. “Sorry, I wasn’t...prepared for that, Shimizu-senpai.”

“Kiyoko, please. Call me Kiyoko.”

Hitoka can feel her face grow hot, which is horrifically embarrassing. “K-Kiyoko, then.”

They end up sitting in the cafe for several hours, just talking and drinking various iced beverages. At some point Kiyoko checks her watch and says, “Would you like to go somewhere else for dinner?”

“Is it really dinnertime already? Wow,” Hitoka says. This went later than she was expecting. She’ll probably stay up late working tonight, which is fine, nothing she hasn’t done before. “I’d love to get dinner with you!”

They wander the neighboring streets for a bit until they find a place that looks good. “I think I’ve been here with Suga before,” Kiyoko says, frowning at the sign. “He works near me so he tries to take me out for lunch every so often. The entire office thinks he’s my boyfriend, no matter how many times we both deny it.”

“I could take you to lunch sometimes too,” Hitoka blurts out. “Or bring you bentos. I’m a decent cook.” She feels irrationally, unnecessarily jealous of Sugawara.  _ Back off, Suga-san! I have dibs!  _ Hitoka thinks. “Do you...would you mind?”

Kiyoko smiles directly at her, which is something mere mortals were not built to withstand. Hitoka realizes all of a sudden that Kiyoko’s been smiling at her a lot today, and Hitoka hasn’t literally combusted from the attention yet.  _ The guys would be proud of me, _ Hitoka thinks distantly. “I’d love that. I don’t have a whole lot of time to cook for myself. Lots of cup noodles in my life.”

“I can make you healthy lunches with lots of vegetables,” Hitoka says quickly.

Kiyoko just smiles at her again. 

_ Oh my god, she’s so pretty, how is she so pretty, what even is my LIFE,  _ Hitoka thinks, and realizes that, no matter how much things have changed since her first year of high school, that’s something that will probably never go away.

“So this...are we like, g-girlfriends now?” Hitoka asks her, when they’re on the subway home together after dinner. (Hitoka lives just three stops away from Kiyoko on the same train line. She never realized how close they’d been all this time.) She’s aware that this isn’t an ideal place for a conversation like this— the train car is packed with people, and Hitoka’s standing closer to Kiyoko than she’s ever had to stand before simply because there was no alternative. It’s not helping her rising heart rate.

“Do you want to be? Girlfriends?” Kiyoko’s voice is barely above a whisper, as she looks at Hitoka. Kiyoko looks...vulnerable, almost, with her blue eyes wide behind rectangular glasses frames. They’re close enough that Hitoka can almost hear Kiyoko’s heartbeat. Or maybe she’s just imagining it. 

The train car rumbles through the underground, reminding Hitoka that this is in the Top Fve Least Romantic Settings For Making Your Relationship Official. 

In a move that was a little more daring than she thought she was capable of, Hitoka puts her hand on top of Kiyoko’s on the metal railing. “Yes, yes, of course, I thought that was obvious!” Hitoka starts laughing, out of a combination of happiness and relief. “I mean, if you said no I still probably would have made you friendship bentos, because nutrition is important and all, but I would much rather make you girlfriend bentos. I’ll cut carrots shaped like hearts and everything.”

Hitoka feels a little bit like she’s reliving those fantasies that preoccupied her towards the end of her first year of high school, when she’d slowly gone from “that upperclassman girl is so pretty” to “I wonder what it’d be like to kiss Shimizu-Senpai” to “I want to make Shimizu-senpai breakfast and adopt some cats with her.” Sixteen-year-old Hitoka would be over the moon to know that, almost a decade later, the breakfast and cat adoption dream might actually come true.

“That sounds perfect.”

Kiyoko’s stop comes up first. She squeezes Hitoka’s free hand ( _ her hand is so soft, so warm, _ Hitoka thinks) and says, “I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Okay,” Hitoka replies, feeling dazed. The entire afternoon had felt completely surreal.

The train doors slide shut, and Hitoka leans her head against the pole. Maybe she should’ve kissed her, or maybe it’s too soon for that, or too public, or something... Just being in the same room as Kiyoko still turns her into a fluttery mess still, so maybe if they had kissed, Hitoka would have melted into a puddle and ruined those salarymen’s shoes.

\---

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・): AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA _

_ [cut for length] _

_ Hinata Shouyou (・`ω´・):  so date went well? _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): so very well (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) _

_ \--- _

Hitoka finds herself, yet again, lying in bed staring at her phone. Kiyoko had said she’ll text her, but it’s been most of a day, and Hitoka kind of wants to text first. She knows there’s some kind of rule about playing hard to get, not seeming too eager, but she’s not sure if that rule applies to lesbians the same way it applies to straight girls.

So she just texts first.

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): Hi (* ^ ω ^) are you free this weekend? there’s a new special exhibition opening at the MOMAT and I thought we could go check it out! _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): I know you said you’re not a big art person but the MOMAT is actually one of my favorite museums so like. I could tell you everything you need to know about the art stuff _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): you don’t even need to know about art stuff to appreciate art tbh if you think a thing looks nice it looks nice _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): sorry I’m rambling. But. museum?  _

It takes a few minutes for Kiyoko to respond, enough time for Hitoka to reevaluate all of her life choices and start pondering the logistics of changing her name and starting a new life in Australia.

_ Shimizu Kiyoko (*ﾉωﾉ): I’m free Sunday! Do you want to meet at the museum, or somewhere else? _

_ Yachi Hitoka (*´▽`*): we could get lunch first! ...you’re really interested? _

_ Shimizu Kiyoko (*ﾉωﾉ): spending time with you is always interesting, and I’d love to learn more about something you’re passionate about. _

Hitoka could almost hear it, Kiyoko’s matter-of-fact way of saying these things like she doesn’t know what they do to Hitoka’s heart.

But hey. She had a second date set.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on [tumblr](http://cubistemoji.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](http://twitter.com/mashazart/)  
> 


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